There is nothing quite like a new year’s resolution to get you starting something. That’s really the easy bit, the tough bit is keeping it up. You’re likely feeling fat and unfit after a festive season of excess, and whilst it is good to indulge ourselves now and again, let’s be honest if you carry on with that trajectory, you’re likely to have more than a few kilos by this time next year, you might even pick up a few illnesses and long term issues along the way too. Remember that low fitness kills more people than smoking, diabetes and obesity combined and that physical inactivity is associated with a higher risk for severe Covid19. If it’s not just your body you are worried about Google ‘Scholarly articles about the psychological benefits of exercise’ and you will find literally thousands of articles talking about combatting stress, decrease in suicidal thoughts, improved self-esteem, academic improvements in children, improved mood and quality of life etc etc. Exercise really is medicine.
This study aimed to look at injuries in rugby union over 2 seasons in both male and female amateur rugby players.
The most common injuries in men and women were concussion and ankle ligament sprains, and ACL injuries causing the most playing time lost.
THE REALLY INTERESTING BIT: 83% of non-contact injuries for women happened in the last quarter of the game…
Spinal stress fractures, Severe’s Disease, Osgood Schlatter’s Disease amongst other things are the scourge of every young cricketing team. With my background in academy cricket physio and national pathway cricket, I now find myself working in private practice based at a cricket ground and so still see a lot of young cricketers, and the stories really haven’t changed that much. School, club and county are all competing for time with the kids, and parents either feel pressured or are doing the pressurising of the kids to do all of the training and matches laid on by all of the entities. Coupled with the fact that children no longer play in seasons, a perfect storm begins to brew.
I see a lot of patients every day with pain, and so often their story goes... I used to go to the gym regularly, but about 3 months ago I stopped’, or ‘I just don’t have time for exercise’, or ‘I hate going to the gym because it’s boring’. My point is though, that those people are in pain for a reason: they’re weak, they’re unfit, they’re often overweight and they probably haven’t taken a deep breath in MONTHS
